Smoking's For The Birds

The waiting room at the radiation center today was more crowded than usual. Of course, I befriended everyone in it because cancer has turned me into a Chatty Cathy.

There were 2 sisters in the waiting room. They were older and looked like twins. One had lung and brain cancer. She was a smoker. I felt awful for her. She also told me that her son was killed in a motorcycle accident about a year ago. This poor woman. What really got me though is her sister wreaked of cigarettes. It blew me away. Here her sister was getting treatments for lung cancer that had spread to her brain, and she was still smoking. It wasn't my place to tell her to quit, so I kept my mouth shut. I would think seeing her sister go through all of this would make her change her ways, but sometimes addictions get the best of you.

On a kinda more uplifting note, there was a woman in the waiting room who starts treatments on Monday. She was waiting for her schedule and just started crying. I told her I understood and it's scary but that radiation was easy. She said she had chemo and had a pretty easy time with it and I said, "If you thought that was easy, you are in for a treat." We have the same oncologist and I told her I was 4 weeks in and aside from some fatigue, it was a piece of cake. (I didn't want to tell her that I have developed a very itchy rash on my chest. She may not get that and I didn't want to stress her out). She stopped crying, smiled and said, "You have made me feel much better. Thank you." The unknown is so scary. The anticipation is worse than the treatments. I told her she was in good hands and all the techs were amazing and it's quick and painless. I am so glad she left smiling and hopefully can have a good weekend and not stress out.

Oh and one of the women told me I was lucky I didn't lose my hair. And I told her I loved her and she made my day because I was wearing a wig!!